Electric locomotives

Electric locomotives

Electric locomotives or electric locomotives, unlike diesel locomotives, do not have their own source of energy. The engines of these vehicles are powered by electricity generated at stationary power plants, and then sent to electric locomotives through power lines, substations and traction lines. Power systems can be divided according to the type of current, voltage, number of phases, frequency. Varieties The most common types of electric locomotives are: • Using direct current. The operating voltage ranges from 500 V to 3 kV, with low voltages being used for electrification of short sections. This is mainly due to the fact that there was no alternator before. The advantage of this system is that the locomotives do not have to be equipped with rectifiers, which reduces their cost. A huge disadvantage is the difficulty of rectifying high voltages and high currents, which entails the need to use large sections of the traction network, as well as shorter distances between substations. • Using low frequency alternating current. The main advantage of this system was the absence of the need for rectification of the current, which made it possible to significantly increase the voltage and made it possible to use networks with a smaller cross-section and less frequently located substations. • Using alternating current of industrial frequency. The network is fed directly from the national power grid through conventional transformer substations. This allows the use of arbitrarily high voltages (typically 25 kV). This is the most modern railway electrification system.